POS software/hardware general questions...

Question

I'm looking for answers to a few general questions as to how point of sale (POS) software and hardware generally works in brick-and-mortar stores. I realize there will be many edge cases given the sheer number of solutions out there, but I'm looking for answers on the most common setups...

So, here it goes: I realize that there are several standards for hardware interface standardization (OPOS, JavaPOS, UnifiedPOS). However, what is most common these days?

When a credit or debit card is scanned, does the scanning device take care of processing the card, or is it transmitted to the main POS terminal, which then connects to the processing service for processing?

Are there any standards on software for the main POS terminal systems?

How are product identifiers generally stored - barcode, ASIN, proprietary standard?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

UnifiedPOS, as the name implies, appears to be the most universal standard. JavaPOS, as you might expect, is Java language specific, while OPOS is WIN32/COM based, which suggests that it is an older standard.

OPOS, JavaPOS, and POS for .NET are all based on the UnifiedPOS standard, and they all appear to have broad support. So your choice comes down to which programming language you want to use to develop the platform.

Hardware written to the UnifiedPOS standard should work with any of these platforms. The UnifiedPOS committee says that 36 different point-of-service peripheral types currently support the standard.